TEL AVIV — Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon, has made no secret in the last year of his high regard for the newly installed chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. A little more than a year ago, Ya’alon went so far as to criticize his own government openly for failing…
Some 150 Jewish officials thanked Pope John Paul II at the Vatican for his outreach efforts to Israel and to the Jewish world. The delegation, which included rabbis, cantors and other Jewish officials from Europe, Israel and North America, came to the Vatican on Tuesday under the auspices of the Pave the Way Foundation, a…
Two Ukrainian Jewish girls are recovering from injuries they received in an antisemitic attack earlier this month. Natasha Zhvakalyuk, 11, underwent surgery on her nose, and Sveta Abramovich, 16, received medical treatment for a concussion. Both girls have left the hospital. The two were among a group of Orthodox children attacked in Southern Ukraine. Thirteen…
“I’m going to tell you two completely contradictory ideas, and I want you to understand that I believe both of them with every fiber of my being.” So said Rabbi Daniel Gordis, the popular, American-born Israeli educator and author, attempting to explain the divisions in Israeli society to a rapt audience of 50-odd New Yorkers…
A handful of ultra-wealthy Jewish liberals are resolving to do battle with conservatives by providing a big infusion of cash to progressive think tanks and idea mills. New York-based financier George Soros, Cleveland insurance king Peter Lewis and Oakland, Calif., banking magnates Herb and Marian Sandler made the pledge at a meeting in San Francisco…
THE FOOD MAVEN by Matthew Goodman At a certain point, every Jewish-cookbook writer has to confront the issue of mortality: the fact that most traditional Jewish foods, like most traditional Jewish languages, have either vanished or are in the process of vanishing before our eyes. Of the 20,000 words included in the leading Yiddish dictionary,…
WASHINGTON — A CIA-affiliated think tank is predicting that America is “likely” to be hit by bio-terrorist attacks at some point in the next 15 years. According to two recently released reports from respected think tanks, the country is still unprepared for strikes involving biological agents such as anthrax and smallpox. Taken together, the think…
In the last issue of Der Vinkl, we featured Itzik Manger on the occasion of his 35th yahrzeit. Manger was known as “the people’s poet,” exploring the moods and modes of the masses. One of Manger’s most famous poems was written during World War II. He dedicated it to martyr Shmuel Zygelboym, who committed suicide…
RAMALLAH — Although the new Palestinian Authority chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, is publicly committed to ending attacks on Israel through agreements with groups such as Hamas, the authority is prepared to use force unilaterally if talks fail, a top Abbas adviser told the Forward. “For those factions who either are not willing to reach an agreement…
“It is an honor to be part of the work of the Center for Jewish History,” said Antonio Bandini, Italy’s consul general in New York, at last month’s “A Conversation With Nedo Fiano on His Book, ‘Il Coraggio Di Vivere,’” sponsored by the center, the Centro Culturale Primo Levi, The Jewish Heritage Project, New York…
A showdown is set for next week between the Conservative movement’s rabbinical union and one of its younger members, who claims she is facing expulsion because of her activism on behalf of gay and lesbian Jews. Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, acknowledges that one of his organization’s committees has recommended…
